A pallet is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader, or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies. Goods or shipping containers are often placed on a pallet secured with strapping, stretch wrap or shrink wrap and shipped. Pallets have dramatically supplanted older forms of crating like the wooden box and the wooden barrel, as pallets work well with modern packaging like cardboard boxes and intermodal containers commonly used for bulk shipping.
FIG. 1 shows a typical wooden pallet 10 with a series of top deckboards 12 secured with nails 14 to the top surface of stringers or runners 16. The bottom surface of the stringers or runners 16 are further secured to lower deckboards 18 with nails as well. A common application of pallets, or a variation of the pallet called a skid, is to be joined with a bulk box or bulk bin, where the bulk box/bin is often made of corrugated fiberboard that is either doublewall or triplewall. The combination of the bulk box/bin with a pallet or skid is commonly referred to as a gaylord, which derives the name from the Gaylord Container Company that originated the combination. FIG. 2 is a prior art gaylord 20 with an octagonal shaped box 22 with a corresponding lid 24 positioned on a wooden skid 26 formed with a top board 28 attached to the top surface of stringers or runners 16.
Infectious medical waste is generated in the research, diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals and has been, or is likely to have been contaminated by organisms capable of causing disease. Infectious medical waste includes items such as: cultures and stocks of microorganisms and biologicals; blood and blood products; pathological wastes; radiological contrast agents, syringe needles; animal carcasses, body parts, bedding and related wastes; isolation wastes; any residue resulting from a spill cleanup; and any waste mixed with or contaminated by infectious medical waste. Facilities which generate infectious medical waste include: hospitals, doctors offices, dentists, clinics, laboratories, research facilities, veterinarians, ambulance squads, and emergency medical service providers, etc. Infectious medical waste is even generated in homes by home health care providers and individuals, such as diabetics, who receive injections at home.
Before infectious medical waste can be disposed of the waste must be sterilized. Traditional sterilization methods include: incineration; steam treatment or autoclaving; and liquid waste may be disposed of in approved sanitary sewers. More recent methods that have been developed include microwave irradiation and use of various chemical washes.
Transforming waste from a liability to an asset is a high global priority. Currently employed technologies that rely on incineration to dispose of carbonaceous waste with useable quantities of heat being generated while requiring scrubbers and other pollution controls to limit gaseous and particulate pollutants from entering the environment. Incomplete combustion associated with conventional incinerators and the complexities of operation in compliance with regulatory requirements often mean that waste which would otherwise have value through processing is instead sent to a landfill or incinerated off-site at considerable expense. As medical waste often contains appreciable quantities of synthetic polymers including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), incineration of medical waste is often accompanied by release of chlorine, ClOx, SOx, and NOx air pollutants that must be scrubbed from the emitted gases. Alternatives to incineration have met with limited success owing to complexity of design and operation outweighing the value of the byproducts from waste streams.
While there have been many advances in the treatment and disposal of infectious waste, the use of wooden pallets that are fastened together with nails to transport waste are in general hard to grind and shred. The construction of the wooden pallets may disrupt the operation of the grinder and shredders in the treatment facility. Thus, there exists a need for improved high strength packaging solutions that allow for safe transport of the waste to a disposal location, and where the packaging is compatible with automated systems and methods for treatment of infectious and hazardous waste.